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Rosy Retrospection: Meaning and Repercussions

December 11, 2023

experience, ignorance, nostalgia, society, time

“People were kinder when I was a kid!” “We could sleep with the doors unlocked back then!” “There was justice and respect for others!” You have surely heard something like that yourself. You have very likely seen people making such claims, usually followed by the response “OK, boomer!” This phenomenon is called rosy retrospection.

In social psychology, rosy retrospection is defined as the tendency to view the past in a disproportionately positive light, filtering out the negative aspects and highlighting the positives. It’s a confirmation bias expression. And as any confirmation bias, it can be extremely insidious, with far-reaching repercussions.

So, to figure all this out myself, in this post I’m taking a closer look at rosy retrospection: what it is, its connection with nostalgia, what is said (and what is not, which is as critical), and the repercussions it has for all of us.

rosy retrospection - color balloon against a gray city — Rosy retrospection is the idea that you remember how beautiful that balloon you saw was, and you all but forget the gray city behind it

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Dreaming of Japan (and Other Imaginary Lands)

July 10, 2023

Experiencing

dream, experiencing, Japan, nostalgia

Japan is obviously not imaginary; it’s a real country, it exists – if you’re looking for countries that don’t exist, Finland is the one you’re looking for 😛. But my Japan is imaginary. I’m dreaming of a Japan that simply is there only in my imagination, being an entirely subjective, partial, and factually extremely flawed version of the realWe’ll come back to this later; it’s intriguing. Japan.

My Japan is no more (or less?) real than the afternoons of my childhood, smelling Greek coffee, and overall constructing a version of a reality that is, shall we use the term, questionable.

Whenever I’m reading about Japan, seeing photos or videos from there – including its huge cat culture, one must admit – I immediately feel calm. I feel a sense of longing for something that, again, isn’t there. More still, it never has; it’s not like I used to live in Japan and now I miss it.

So what does dreaming of Japan – and other imaginary lands – reveals to us about the way our mind wanders?

dreaming Japan — I tried to find the most stereotypical Japanese image you can think of, and this qualifies. I’m dreaming of a Japan that isn’t real – or, to put it this way, is a drop of reality in an ocean of factual details I deliberately ignore

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Humans Are Predictable (and That’s Fine)

February 6, 2023

Society

humanity, life, nostalgia, psychology, society

All of us humans are predictable – including this very statement and this entire post. That is, it’s inherently predictable to say humans are predictable. You might have even seen a movie where a character begins to say “You can’t figure me out, I’m really…” and another character completes the phrase: “unpredictable?”

Though I don’t have any data to support my claim, it feels most people would prefer not to be thought of as predictable. Perhaps it’s a concept making us uncomfortable, as it alludes to free will – or lack thereof.

Are humans predictable? I’d say we are. But – and here’s the twist in the proverbial plot – that’s likely a good thing.

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